Zodiac Challenge
by Hurlbear
Summary: Original Fic. New region no new Pokemon. Conflicts for one kid and his friends as they try to head through a new Pokemon League that not only isn't stable but has conflict coming from the other regions! Summary sucks I know. On Hiatus until further notice
1. Journey Begins

Discalimer: I do not own Pokemon or am affiliated with the companies that do. If I was than this would have been a much better series.

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><p>"HEY SAM!" screamed a teenage boy at the window separating him from his friend. The boy was wearing a red shirt, black pants and shoes, a red bandanna with blue pokeballs hid his short blond hair and were carrying a black and red backpack. "WAKE UP YOU LAZY PIECE OF FAT!"<p>

"Chad if you don't stop yelling at my window," said another boy who was standing behind a picket fence several yards away, "my mom will come out and will make you start cleaning the place up for waking her." Chad instantly turned around and ran towards his friend and tried vaulting the fence. Sam stopped him from landing face first onto the dirt road.

"Thanks man." Said Chad. "What is with the goofy clothes dude?" Sam was in blue jeans, running shoes, a silver hat with a green pokeball symbol over his black hair, carrying a green backpack, a new green shirt and an also new silver windbreaker.

"Moms going away gift the jackets supposed to be good for all weather so gonna keep it." Replied Sam. "Lets go and get Sally before she gets tired of waiting." The two boys run towards the biggest house in town.

"You two are late!" screamed a girl from the front porch of a very nice house charging towards the two boys.

"Told you we shouldn't have said a specific time" mumbled Sam. The girl was their friend Sally whose parents were the wealthiest people in the Conomal Islands who had setup there nice home in the regions starting town of Sapolo. She was wearing a blue t-shirt and a knee length pink skirt, running shoes, her red hair in a ponytail and had a belt full of pouches for food and supplies.

"Let's go slowpokes," Sally yelled back at the two boys standing as she ran pass. "The new professor should have starters with him for us." At this the two boys started sprinting to keep up with her.

"Welcome to my new lab. I am this regions new professor, Professor Pine. You three, I'm guessing, are the three trainers that are going to be the first to go through the islands, am I right?" said the strange green haired adult. All three kids nodded. "Very well. This region is comprised of many island this is the second biggest island Cono. It has large plains and many cliffs. On it there are four gyms, two for each of the twin gym challenges, the Zodiac Challenge and the Constellation Challenge. And no due to the arguments in the league about which of these leagues should be used there are no contest halls for you, Sally, I was pre-warned by your parents on that matter." The two boys chuckled for they new how much Sally wanted to the top co-ordinater of the islands. "And due to the Leagues current lack of resources instead of picking from a trio of fire, grass or water types you will instead be picking from an Eevee, a Makuhita, and a Misdreveus. Also as you may know the pokeball developers have improved the pokeball's restriction for moves that pokemon can use so instead of only having access to four attacks your pokemon can use all of them if it so chooses. This is unlike those games I lent you to give you a basic understanding of pokemon battle strategies, moves pokemon can learn, evolution trees and knowledge on some of the pokemon that are still being brought over here."

"Why are pokemon still being brought to the islands?" asked Chad."

"Because these islands are so numerous and no two are alike with different climates and flora and so many other things! Also because of this the islands are now under the pokemon leagues control and many islands are now being used to breed some endangered pokemon and setup special safari zones." Sally responded having all that knowledge since her dad controlled a large media company and several of the islands himself that the league had permission to use.

"Yes well as I was saying before getting interrupted pokémon don't actually have set levels for evolving and can learn just about any move they are capable of learning at any time. Also badges don't really matter to pokémon except as trophies of hard won battles so they can't let you control any pokémon so keep that in mind. Any-who with all that down I am required to explain to you the new equipment we are giving you for your journey. These pokétechs have item storages in them so stuff like sleeping bags, tents, cooking utensils and such can be stored there, this was decided for you trainers who explore a lot and don't want to carry lots of extra weight, they can also be used to hold your money through a wireless bank system with this so any money you put into the storage automatically goes to your bank accounts and no they still do all the other stuff poketechs do. They can also be linked to your pokedexs for special functions like pokeradar to search for certain pokemon or to be used as video-phones. Here are a few books for each of you to read on how to take care of your new pokemon and standard league rules. You will notice that the league dropped the rule of only having one status ailment on a pokemon to encourage trainers to be more strategic and several other rules like it. Now you can choose your pokemon." Professor Pine said finishing his long lecture.

The trainers quickly grabbed gear and pokemon. Sam took the Eevee and a silver poketech and a green pokedex. Chad a red 'dex, a black 'tech and the Makuhita. And Sally took a pink 'tech, blue 'dex and the Misdreveus. The trainers said thanks to the professor and started for the edge of town.

"By the way, all of your pokemon have been bred with special attacks so make sure to check them with your pokedexes." Said the Professor. They did; Eevee knew Tackle, Growl, Shadow Ball, and Aqua Tail, Makuhita knew Tackle, Sand Attack, Ice Punch, and Detect, and Misdreavus knew Psywave, Growl, Headbutt, and Shadow Sneak.

"Alright then what do you guys to a three-way…"said Chad when they passed the city limits sign. This instantly was met with two hits one was a quick slap upside the head by Sam and a swift quick to the gut by Sally. "Ouch I meant a three way battle."

"Dude seriously stop with all the sex jokes some girl you say that to other than Sally will likely kill you, and count yourself lucky she didn't kick you in the balls with that one," responded Sam with a very annoyed looking Sally nodding her agreement to his statements.

"Do you guys have your gifts ready?" asked Chad.

"Yeah I got my part ready," the other two said as they sat down. The three rookies had been friends for their entire lives all the same age born a few days apart from each other so they would simply trade gifts and items on birthdays and special occasions. Sally gave the other two 5000 dollars her dad gave her knowing this. He loved pokemon and his family a lot, had loads of cash and approved of Sam and Chad enough that he almost treated them as good as his own family and had already warned them of traveling with his daughter. Sam being the son of a great trainer and a orchard owner gave the other two a large stash of berries and medicines his parents gave him. His dad owned a lot of berry orchards throughout the islands and his mom was a former Hoenn champion who retired young and now made medicine and treats from those berries. Chad for his part gave the other two a pokemon egg each given to him for this by his breeder parents. Those two were some of the best breeders on the planet and came to the islands for the same reasons the professor explained to them earlier. Several hours later after meeting each others pokemon and looking them up on the pokedexes the friends start off again.

"Hey weren't you challenging me to a fight?" Sam said to Chad while holding his new flame patterned egg.

"Yah why not here?" replied Chad as they set there stuff down and Sally taking the ref spot in the middle of the field they were walking through. Sam sent out his new Eevee that he decided not to nickname as did Chad and his Makuhita.

"Lets start this right Makuhita use Ice Punch."

"Eevee use Shadow Ball to keep it back."

Makuhita charged forward with its fists giving off a light blue glow while Eevee built up a purple sphere. The sphere shot towards the fighting-type and slowed its charge but Makuhita kept up its charge swinging all of the punches missed and made patches of ice on the ground. This gave Sam an idea. "Use Aqua Tail and hit Makuhita back." Eevee realizing what his plan was created three blue rings around his tail and spun knocking the Guts Pokemon backwards and causing it to slip on the ice it made earlier and fall down. "Now finish this with another Aqua Tail!" At this point Makuhita was weak from the attacks and Eevee was tired from all the dodging but still Eevee did a flip and slammed its now watery tail onto the downed pokemon knocking it out.

"Winner Sam and Eevee!" shouted Sally

"Good match and keep your money dude that was between friends, here take an extra Oran berry to heal Maku."

"Thanks" said Sam as the group continued out of town.

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><p>There's the First Chapter. Please R&amp;R<p> 


	2. Second Days Journey

A day of travel later the three trainers decided to take different routes. Sam wanted to get a look at a new Safari Zone going up on the island, Sally wanted to get to Agantolae Town soon because several local people wanted to try and start a local Contest, and Chad wanted to keep training his Makuhita in the plains.

"Makuhita and I came up with a combo attack by combining Ice Punch and Maku's new attack Arm Thrust. Next time we fight you and Eevee are going down!"

After the group split up Sam read I his book on modern Pokemon battling strategies provided by Professor Pine.

"All right so we can combine attacks for different results," Sam paraphrased to his Eevee. "Combined attacks can take a melee move and turn it into a ranged move if down correctly and vice versa. Since you don't have a lot of moves we should try this! Hmm but what could we combine?" At this Eevee though ahead and started creating a Shadow Ball and an Aqua Tail. "Whoa I think you are on to something. Try throwing the Shadow Ball into the last ring of the Aqua Tail and hold it there." Eevee did just that it was concentrating very hard at this point but holding the two attacks now on its tail. "Alright Eevee try to shoot the Shadow Ball with that ring of Aqua Tail." Eevee jumped into the air doing a front flip and shot the now watery shadow projectile. "Awesome! Eevee do you know what this means? We have a combo attack set!" Both the trainer and pokemon cheered at this.

Later as the two continued on towards the new Safari Zone on the island they stumbled upon a fight between two wild pokemon. On one side was an Aron and on the other side was a Squirtle. Both looked incredibly tired and battered. The Squirtle started using a Bubble attack and made a wall of bubbles in front of the Aron who was charging forward in what looked like a Headbutt attack. The Aron smashed through the wall taking a lot of damage and smashed into the Squirtle throwing it through the air. The battle continued as the two watched the two wild Pokemon go back and forth dealing massive damage when it dawned to Sam that these two would be great additions to his team.

"Alright Eevee those two are doing a lot of damage to each other so go in there and hit both of them with our combe attack." The Evolution Pokemon nodded at this and charged toward the two combatants. When the two finally noticed it, he had already launched the dual attack knocking both of them to the ground.

"Go Pokeballs!" shouted Sam as he threw two red and white spheres at the downed Pokemon. Both of them were quickly sucked into the spheres which sounded that their contents were now held securely. Only to be grabbed by an angry teen green-haired in a red and black outfit stood with a weird looking watch. "Hey those are my Pokemon I caught them fair and square!"

"No these Pokemon were going to the new Safari Zone and then you illegally captured them! I demand that you release them at once, if you want to re-catch them come back when the Zone is open and pay your entrance fee."

"Zanto! What The F*** Are You Doing!" screamed a similarly dressed blonde woman. "You Can't Make Him Do S***! You Couldn't keep a close enough eye on the Pokemon coming into the Safari Zone and so once they were out of the Zone they were wild Pokemon and perfectly capable to be caught by this trainer."

The boy, Zanto, tried to reply but was quickly picked up by the women and as they were heading back towards the Safari Zone that Sam realized that Zanto still had his new Pokemon in his hands. Quickly he rushed towards the two strangers.

"I want my Pokemon back!" said Sam as soon as he had caught up to the two.

"WHAT ZANTO YOU DIDN"T GIVE THEM BACK?" screamed the lady.

"You didn't give me a chance to between screaming at me and nearly ripping my ear off!" At this point the girl grabbed the pokeballs from Zanto and hands them to Sam and continues to 'lecture' Zanto loudly for a while until she stopped to take a breath.

"Will you stop? He has the pokemon back and seems fine so shut up!" Zanto shouted.

"Could you guys tell me who you are and why Zanto here thought I'm a pokemon thief?" asked Sam.

"You don't know who Pokemon Rangers are!" The girl said. "Well you are a native to this area so I will explain. Pokemon Rangers are a branch of the Pokemon Leagues law enforcement. Our job is to use our pokemon and Capture Styluses to stop pokemon thieves, guard nature and assist any other law enforcement. By the way my name is Mary and my partner pokemon Bagon is out patrolling the fences for real pokemon thieves with Zanto's partner Venonat. Anyway we were ordered to help set up the Safari Zones throughout the islands that are being supported by the different regions. We also are to assist the Pokemon Gym Challenge here, the backup league and the starting trainers like yourself and help you out when we can. Actually take this it's a pass for special trams setup for us Rangers throughout the islands but I want you to never mention Zanto's mistake to anyone. Okay?" Sam quickly agreed thanked the two, said they were likely to see each other during his journey and boarded the tram towards town with his two new pokemon and his first gym battle.


	3. Unexpected Guest

As Sam continued to ride the tram a stranger pulled him aside.

"My name is Nate. I am a member of the gym leaders who were supposed to be in control of these islands. The only reason we aren't is the people were allowed to vote on it and the current Twin Zodiac League system won the votes by 3%. Now then the 'true' leagues, as we prefer to call ourselves, are arguing on how the system should work. Due to the league being a prototype if the league is deemed a failure it will be replaced with the traditional one. Half of the league believes this can happen if no one participates in the league. I, however, lead the half that thinks if you and your friends beat the league in under a year the old system will be replaced. My half will provide you and your friends with information and occasionally training. But be warned the other half of the league will try and stop you, legally of course. Of them the only one I can tell you about is their leader, Alaina, she is a water-type expert. She and I are the two best of the league." At this the older man released him and Sam turned around to see his new informant. The man was tall and lean; he had purple hair down to his brow. Nate was wrapped in a large brown cloak that covered him from shoulders to almost the floor. Nate started towards the end of the train and motioned Sam to follow.

"Alright before I leave I will tell you about the Leader in the town ahead. His name is Bob Smith. He leads the Tauros gym. He has a Miltank that uses Iron Head and Rollout, and a Tauros that uses Iron Head as well and Shockwave. I hope that helps you as you plan for your first battle and don't worry one of the other leaders is informing both of your friends about the situation." At this the leader jumped into the air, grabbed a nearby Sigilyph and flew off. Sam stood watching this having never said a word as he rode the tram towards Bosilivisto and his first gym.


	4. Training the Team

As Sam approached the city of Bosilivisto, he started to think on what he wanted to do in the city. 'Should I meet up with the others or train before my battle? I don't know much about my two newer pokemon so I should probably learn more about them.' Sam thought, 'I'll try the Pokedex.' He held up the device to one of his pokeballs to scan it. The screen lit up and information started appearing.

Eevee the Evolution Pokemon

Known Moves: Tackle, Growl, Shadow Ball and Aqua Tail

Ability: Adaptability

Condition: Healthy

Gender: Male

Sam repeated this on his other Pokemon.

Squirtle the Tiny Turtle Pokemon

Ability: Torrent

Known Moves: Rapid Spin, Bubble, Withdraw, Bite

Condition: Healthy

Gender: Male

Aron the Iron Armor Pokemon

Known Moves: Mud Slap, Metal Claw, Iron Defense, Take Down

Ability: Rock Head

Condition: Healthy

Gender: Female

"Okay, these guys are all pretty balanced. Now if the Gym Leader has two Pokemon then I will likely only be allowed two as well. Hmmm, Aron for sure, but the other. Squirtle has a type disadvantage to the Shock Wave of the Tauros, if that guys info is to be trusted, but Eevee can't hit hard enough." Sam said to himself. As the train pulled into the station Sam decided to go find his friends and asked their opinion. He called Sally with his Pokegear and met with her at the PokeCenter. Upon reaching the building he saw that neither of his friends was there so he had his Pokemon healed. Once the nurse returned his team he headed out to the Center's practice field to train them.

"Okay, I know how Eevee fights, since we have trained a bit before we met you two, so can you show me how you would normally fight by attacking that boulder over there?" The Pokemon nodded and Aron stepped up to the large rock first. She started using Iron Claw and quickly slashed it and stepped back revealing a bulls-eye. She kept backing up so Sam was about to let Squirtle take over when she started to use Mud Slap and constantly hit the center of the 3 inch bullseye and did this 10 times in under a minute. Then she shattered the boulder with a Take Down.

"… Wow Aron… That was unexpected. So you like to attack at range then finish the fight with a strong close range attack huh?" Aron nodded at this than pointed at Squirtle. "Well Squirtle I think Aron is saying that she's done so there another boulder right there will you please show us how you like to fight?" Squirtle nodded and moved next to the boulder.

Squirtle quickly used Withdraw and ducked into his shell than started using Rapid Spin. While spinning Squirtle started to circle the large rock and started spitting out a Bubble attack that quickly surrounded his target and Sma instantly got Squirtles tactic of setting up walls and trapping his opponent with bubbles that damage them when they run through them. "That's how Aron got hurt so much and why she seems so much faster now, the Bubbles slowed her down." Sam realized. Squirtle nodded. "Well in that case I think Squirtle will fight in the gym battle. Sorry Eevee, If the weird dude from the train was right than the stat damage from Bubble will help a lot." Eevee nodded but looked quite sad.

"There you are Sam! I was wondering if I was the first one here or not." Sally said from the door to the PokeCenter.

"Hey Sally, no I have been here for a little while training and getting used to my new Pokemon."

"That's cool. Since there's no Contests here I only trained my Pokemon."

"Okay. I'll fight them… after I win at the gym that is. I mean you should at least put up a challenge!"

"You should worry about getting your gym badge from the Tauros gym first," a familiar voice said from behind Sally.

"Chad! I knew I wasn't the last one here!" Sally exclaimed.

"Actually I have been in town for a few hours. I just lost at the Ox gym here, badly. I was even told about the Leaders Bouffalants. Sam if you want a chance you need to train more."

"I figured but I'm gonna head to the gym and see just what kind of training is needed." And with that Sam headed towards his first gym battle.


End file.
